Saturday, May 25, 2019

I have just started The Fires of Heaven

The great journey continues. The Wheel turns.

I have just started The Fires of Heaven, Volume #5 of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.
The Flame fractures as the Fang rises, but at least the Red sisters accept that Rand is the Dragon Reborn and must face the Dark One in the Last Battle. Yet already the world lies torn by wars even as Mordeth walks unhindered in Tar Valon and the Daughter of the Night hatches a new plan to snag her lost love whom she of old betrayed. Luck to you, Rand, and pray to the Light that the Aiel live up to their name.


Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Friday, May 24, 2019

I have just finished The Shadow Rising


The great journey continues. The Wheel turns.

I have just finished The Shadow Rising, Volume #4 of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.
"Once the Dragon for remembrance lost, twice the Dragon for the price he must pay." He Who Comes With the Dawn has called the People of the Dragon under one banner. He will unite them. He will destroy them. He will save them. All per the prophesies. Meanwhile the Goldeneye's Wolf banner rises alongside the Red Eagle of Manetheren to stab at the Shadow. Yet a vision of disaster came to pass in the heart of the Light, putting all on the shoulders of the Dragon Reborn who snagged a most unlikely teacher.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

My father and I just finished The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman

My father and I just finished The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman.

An incredibly short yet deeply stirring read, we saw prophesy, old sorrow, death and jealousy ride with the Amazon tribe through the eyes of and often directed towards the girl Rain, daughter of rape and a Queen. Yet times change and evil will always betray itself even as Rain feels the forbidden emotions of mercy and love towards that collective foe called men. More I cannot say save that the book thrums with a primal force that rings out in the echoes of myth and deep emotion.

Ride well, Dream Rider Rain, and you Astella, Penthe, Melek, Deborah, Usha the Bear, Io, and the Black Horse.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Game of Thrones

I admit even I am a tad sorry that the Game of Thrones TV series has ended, for with it goes so many grand opportunities to make wry comments about GRRM. 

So here is the last one, done in honor of Ned Stark and Quentyn Martell: Hopefully the books have an ending just as happy, because there is no single Night's King to slay and I daresay that HBO is less bloodthirsty than GRRM.

Friday, May 17, 2019

His Dark Materials Official BBC teaser

Do I even need to say anything? 😃 Far be from me to judge a TV series by the teaser alone, but this looks excellent. (Might help those soon to be suffering from Game of Thrones withdrawal as well)


"Lyra just came to me entire and complete, I didn’t consciously make her up with a list of attributes. But I had been a teacher for about 12 years working with children of her age and there were lots of Lyras - in every classroom in the country there is a Lyra or two. Or three. She’s a very ordinary child and that’s the point about her. If she’s unusual it’s in her capacity to feel affection, which she does very readily and very warmly." – Sir Philip Pullman

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

My father and I just finished Something Rich and Strange by Patricia A. McKillip

My father and I just finished Something Rich and Strange  by Patricia A. McKillip. (A novella within her Dreams of Distant Shores book)

The book is like a lullaby rocking you as gently with words as the tides do seaweed. I caught myself nearly falling asleep at times not because the story was in any way boring but rather because of the linguistic melody. A true siren's song. One has heard of not being able to see the forest for the trees, but in this book one nearly loses the story for the words. Frankly, I think it is a gross misconception that people even read books; say rather that books read people by projecting themselves onto those willing to open up to them.
That said and while the book did not in the end match The Changeling Sea, calling the story a siren's song is an apt comparison seeing as once again McKillip brought forth the great power of the fathomless depths; only she made it more fathomable as we actually entered the undersea realm this time. Searching for and lured by siren's songs and lost but true mortal love, we saw mer-trees with fishscale-bark and kelp for leaves. (And excellent work on the rescue mission, Megan.)


Ever look towards the sea and each other, Jonah and Megan.

"Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange."

- Shakespeare's The Tempest

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

I finally completed RuneScape's Myreque quest series

Myreque sickle
Over a decade of work ended today as I finally completed RuneScape's Myreque quest series. The Myreque were a paramilitary resistance movement trying to liberate Morytania, the Vampyre-infested lands across the Holy River Salve, from the grasp of the vampyre Lord Drakan and his underlings. A dark and terrifying tale full of blood, death, horror, and truly heroic acts of selflessness in a beyond desperate fight against impossible odds to free humanity from being milked like cows for blood.
 

A tale which had my heart on a string almost as soon as I started the quest series over a decade ago.

Cheers to a dearly bought and partial yet true still success. Cheers to the living and the dead: Veliaf Hurtz, Harold Evans, Ivan Strom, Polmafi Ferdygris, Radigad Ponfit, Sani Piliu, Safalaan Hallow, Vertida Sefalatis, Andiess Juip, Flaygian Screwte, Kael Forshaw, Mekritus A'hara, Drezel, and Queen Efaritay.
Myreque prevail.

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Tolkien estate disavows forthcoming Tolkien-biopic

Nicholas Hoult as J.R.R. Tolkien and
Lily Collins as his wife Edith
The title of this post says it all and one can read the details in this article from The Guardian. Frankly though, this sounds worse than it is seeing as the Tolkien Estate expressed noted distaste with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies as well (which were as good if not better than one could reasonably expect a movie of J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork to be). Honestly, the Tolkien Society is too perfectionist for their own good and I find it ironic seeing as Christopher Tolkien has spent his life compiling and publishing works that his father did not deem complete enough to see the light of day. Fitting really, I guess, and ironic, that the Estate should embody J.R.R. Tolkien's one standout flaw that I know of: taking
perfectionism to near-religious levels.


(As to the Tolkien biopic, I am neither excited nor otherwise myself. I have concerns, serious ones, but I want to wait and see the reviews first before casting a condemnation.)